Friday, November 13, 2009

…imagine if John Kerry had put Dennis Kucinich on the Veep ticket [in 2004] and then lost. Kucinich would have increased stature in the Democratic party, and probably be quite popular with "the base," but the press would mostly ignore him other than to occasionally sneer. I'm not equating Palin and Kucinich, just trying to imagine who might occupy a similar space on the left.

It goes beyond Palin. The right seems to come up with these functionally illiterate political celebrities on a regular basis. Think Joe the Plumber or Carrie Prejean. I suppose one could conclude there is a conspiracy among the liberal media elites (you know, any media that isn’t Fox News or talk radio) to turn these goofballs into celebrities to make the right look bad. However, that doesn’t really work since the rightwing media and the right itself (up to and including Republican presidential candidates) regularly embraces and promotes these people as serious political players.

And since every fair-minded person knows that things are exactly equal on the left and right (they always are), I’d like to know where the left’s idiot political celbs are? Where’s the lefty Joe the Plumber? It just doesn’t happen.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

I really think this country is headed toward anarchy. With more and more people becoming detached from reality and believing almost anything they want to, there can’t even be the basis for foundational consensus. Add to this the growing belief that government is inherently bad in-and-of itself (i.e. not because it is increasingly becoming a tool of corporations and other monied interests), I see no other future.

Most of the Republican candidates for Illinois governor flatly reject the idea that human activity contributes to global warming, a position that contradicts the overwhelming consensus among climate scientists.

Five of the seven Republican candidates claim rising temperatures have nothing to do with pollution from cars, factories or power plants.

Honestly, I don’t know how much difference this lunacy makes since global climate change really needs to be addressed on a national and global scale. Still, this is just making it easier and easier to not take these guys seriously on anything. If you are this intellectually bankrupt, I don’t want you anywhere near the levers of power.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Predictably, after the Ft. Hood shooting some idiot conservatives are suggesting that we do some sort of loyalty exam for Muslim-Americans before allowing them into the US military. Who is "we"? Who gets to do this exam? What, presumably more American people like whites or Christians?

Why don't Muslim Americans decide which Christians get to enter the US military? Oh, does that sound offensive? Does it sound weird? Why should it sound any different than Christians getting to decide which other Americans they will allow into the US military?

A lot of people are rightfully making the point that you can not generalize about millions of Muslims in this country based on two guys. Just as you cannot generalize about all right-leaning white Christians (let alone all Christians in their entirety) based on what domestic terrorists like Tim McVeigh did, or Terry Nichols, or Eric Rudolph, or Scott Roeder or ...

But there is a more important point here. Muslims Americans don't have to prove a damn thing to you. They are Americans just like anyone else, whether right-wing clowns like it or not. They are not 80% American. They are not 90% as American as you are. You don't get to judge how American they are.

Here is the inalterable fact that the right-wing of this country has to get used to - Muslim-Americans are 100% American. There are no degrees of how American you are. They have the same exact rights, privileges and responsibilities as any other American does. They don't have to answer to you.

This “debate” was all too predictable. Bigots are always ready to quickly generalize when an incident occurs that reinforces their bigotry. I knew this was coming as soon as the details behind the Ft. Hood incident were released. I suppose the best thing to do is let the bigots have their freak-out and a month (if not sooner) from now life will just go on, tragedies and all.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Especially in light of the Blagojevich debacle, I’ve promised to keep an open mind on deciding on who to support for Illinois Governor next year. But I can already tell you that I can’t vote for any of these guys. That didn’t take long. What a bunch of idiots. Just, WOW.